Four men in four separate cities are dead over a shoplifted cigar, a single sold cigarette, a legal pocket knife and a domestic order for child support. Do any of us feel appreciably safer for the cost? Do any of us still want to talk about breaking a few eggs to make that omelet? Do any of us still want to defend the absurd and brutalizing notion that by using our police officers to stalk our ghettoes heaving criminal charge upon criminal charge at every standing human being, we are fixing, or helping, or even intelligently challenging the other America to find a different future for itself?

Why yes, yes we do. Incredibly, we do.

Brilliant bit by David Simon in the aftermath of Baltimore and Ferguson and, damn… there’s really a list…

Security, manageability, and lower TCO are why Macs should comprise 10 to 25 percent of a company’s work PCs.

An excellent article by Galen Gruman, which is a followup, or, really, a response to the comments on this article in InfoWorld: Windows 10 won’t save the PC.

If anyone, including those in IT, has told you that Macs don’t make sense in corporate IT, they’re still living in the 90s. While Macs don’t make sense in every situation, they make great sense in many more situations than they don’t.

His take on how he writes (or doesn’t) squares with mine to a near perfect T.

When and where do you write? I write like writing is a job. I have an office. I go to it. I fart around in the mornings, tending to business, editing, reading. In the afternoon, I look at the clock and think, “oh, crud, I have to get something done! It’s almost time to go home and fix dinner!” So I write furiously until I go home and fix dinner.

I also liked this bit:

What’s your advice to new writers? Take acting classes. Actors need to know all about the motivation of their characters. They need to know where the character is coming from and where he is going to, what he wants, what he needs, what he will die without having, etc. Even though it might not all be in the text, it has to be in the mind of the actor playing the part.

Starting this week I will be taking over the weekly reigns of Working Mac at Macworld.com. This week I take a look at the Pomodoro Technique, something I use when my focus is at a minimum. Kicking off a timer will often help me get back on task.

…tests are not measures of anything other than one’s ability to operate in artificial environments under forced and arbitrary time constraints in a sweaty room proximate to one’s tormentors, victims, crushes, exes, old best friends and frenemies.